Letter to editor

Abass Bundu should not be attacked for writing on the environment

 5 April 2008 at 00:56|872 views

That Dr. Abass Bundu would lend his voice to the matter of environmental resuscitation in Sierra Leone must in no way be decried or mocked. We must come to expect that of our elder statesmen. Just look at the likes of Al Gore and his stance on global warming.

The point must be made that it is nauseating however, to say the least, that of the highly virile minds that can be found in Sierra Leone on any given day, few are stepping forward to nudge a sitting government along the path to bold and radical steps in reforming thought and action on matters of critical importance not linked to immediate political gains.

While some of the [retired] politicians may have issues with their own political skeletons, this must not stop them from stepping forward as often as necessary with original thinking that may hold solutions to critical national problems. In fact, the intellectual capital tied up in these individuals must be drafted by sitting governments to do exactly that. They must be charged with the mandate to come up with a laundry list of "what ifs" that a sitting government can examine for adoption — on the merit. The deforestation nightmare in Sierra Leone along with the attendant effect on air quality, destruction of wildlife and wildlife habitat is real. Dr. Bundu made an eloquent point.

We must now encourage Dr. Bundu and those of his ilk to lend us their grey hair on a sister problem as suggested, reversing the environmental destruction brought on by decades of wanton reckless mining excavations in Kono and other Diamond mining districts in Sierra Leone.